Tapbots Releases Calcbot for iPhone and iPad

Posted July 13, 2010 by byMarianne Schultz

Tapbots, the developer of the slick Convertbot app, has released Calcbot, a universal calculator app for the iPhone and iPad. With the tag line “Calculate Intelligently” Calcbot promises to be an easy-to-use and elegantly-designed app. Its full list of features includes:

Beautiful, yet simple user interface that comes to life with finely machined animation and sound

Advanced functions accessible via the innovative SwipePad

Live as-you-type expression history so you never forget what you entered last

Calculation history tape that also shows the expression used

Email your history as text or send values and expressions back the calculator

Retina display support

Fast app switching

On the iPhone 4, Calcbot’s interface is crisp enough to do the Retina Display justice and it works smoothly, complete with cute robotic sounds (which can be turned off in the settings). Swiping right reveals scientific functions and swiping down reveals the history tape (a brief tutorial when you first open the app walks you through this).

We reviewed some calculator apps for the iPad a few months ago and two of the three we looked at were iPad-only while one was universal for both the iPad and iPhone. If you own both and iPad and iPhone, a universal app should be on your calculator app shopping list to get the most bang for your buck and Calcbot fits that bill. On the iPad, Calcbot takes advantage of the increased screen real estate by displaying the history tape on the right in landscape mode with the same overall functionality as on the iPhone.

Tapbots has made a video showing Calcbot in action:

Calcbot is on sale for $.99 for a short time only and we recommend you grab it soon if you’ve been looking for an attractive and functional calculator app for your iPad and one good enough to make you stash the iPhone’s stock calculator app in a folder on the last page of your home screen.

Don’t be to hard on macmercy, its a kind of illusion of words when you say that type of problem out load. And add to that is both CalcPad (iPhone app ) and Microsoft Windows Calculator program both solve the problem like macmercy describes, that is to say wrong. When you read the 150 – 50% in your head it wrongly associates the 50% to the 150. What your brain should ask is 150 – “50% of what”? You should also be able to do the opposite equation to arrive at the original number :

Correct Example( we will change the percentage to a decimal fraction ):
150 – .5 = 149.5
flip it
149.5 + .5 = 150
This is a balanced equation – in math this is proof.

Incorrect Example ( using the way macmercy is viewing the problem ):
150 – 50% = 75 (being 50% of 150 is 75)
flip
75 + 50% = 87.5 (being 50% of 75 is 37.5)
This is a unbalanced equation, therefor it is proved to be wrong.

Again I bet a good 75% of everyone who casually looks at this problem would give you the wrong answer of 75 off the top of there heads. It’s kind of a mathematical juxtaposition illusion, used extensively by Politicians oh and apparently Microsoft! 8^)

in fact, I have 3 real calculators here and they all work as I’ve expected. Apple’s own iPhone-calculator works that way (OS 4.0 german system, just tested). CalcPad works that way. Only CalcBot doesn’t work so.

May be it’s possible to face these percent-calculations in 2 ways – I only need one. And CalcBot doesn’t offer that (at this time).

Thanks for all answers. And in fact, I am in a kind of financial industry – if not, this problem wouldn’t bother me. 🙂

ShaneCM, sorry but you are wrong, but not completely. You cannot say 50% has any real value unless factored against some number. It’s true 50% of 1 = 0.5, but 50% of 2 = 1.

As a factor in a multiplication equation 50% is represented by the value 0.5 (representing “one half”, not a real value of .5). So multiplying any number by 0.5 is equivalent to one half it’s value. For example, “1 * 0.5 = 0.5” or “100 * 0.5 = 50”.

The same is true of the subtraction equations macmercy uses as examples. It is implied that the equation “120 – 10% = X” really means “120 – (120*.1) = X”. It does NOT mean “120 – .1 = X”. Carry the original equation out and you get “120 – 12 = 108”.

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